1. Luck be a Landlord
  2. News

Luck be a Landlord News

v1.1.1

The game has been patched to fix a few bugs.

Changes
  • Fixed a bug where Ritual Candle Essence's description didn't reflect the changes made to it in The Big Buffs Update
  • Fixed a bug where an incorrect item would be added if an Item Capsule or Hustling Capsule was destroyed while the item that was supposed to be added was disabled and the player had Capsule Machine or Capsule Machine Essence
  • Fixed a bug where the Text 2 color customization option wasn't being applied to the Achievement Stat text
  • [Modding] Fixed a bug where reverse_adjacent_symbol and reverse_type weren't functioning properly

The Big Buffs Update

The game has been patched to buff 29 symbols and items!

New Content
  • Added 33 more color customization options
  • Modified 5 existing symbols (changes listed under Game Balance)
  • Modified 24 existing items (changes listed under Game Balance)


Game Balance
  • Card Shark now gives 3 coins per spin (instead of 2 coins)
  • Dog now gives 2 coins when its effect is triggered (instead of 1 coin)
  • General Zaroff now gives 25 coins for each symbol he destroys (instead of 20 coins)
  • Hex of Tedium now makes players 1.3x less likely to find Uncommon, Rare, and Very Rare symbols (instead of 1.2x less likely)
  • Mouse now gives 20 coins for each symbol it destroys (instead of 15 coins)
  • Ancient Lizard Blade now gives 9 coins (instead of 8 coins)
  • Black Cat now gives 9 coins when its effect is triggered (instead of 6 coins)
  • Black Suits is now Common, is destroyable after 7 spins, and adds Clubs and Spades when destroyed (instead of its previous effect)
  • Chili Powder now gives 2 coins per Pepper (instead of 1 coin per Pepper)
  • Cyan Pepper now gives 3 coins when its effect is triggered (instead of 2 coins)
  • Cyan Pepper Essence now gives 30 coins when its effect is triggered (instead of 20 coins)
  • Devil's Deal now adds 6 Duds when destroyed (instead of 66 Empties)
  • Dwarven Anvil is now Common (instead of Uncommon)
  • Fertilizer now makes Seeds 50% more likely to grow (instead of 25% more likely)
  • Flush now makes Suits Common instead of Uncommon, removes all Suits before each spin, and gives 12 coins for each Suit removed (instead of its previous effect)
  • Flush Essence now destroys itself after 5 Suits are removed, removes all Suits before each spin, and gives 20 coins for each Suit removed (instead of its previous effect)
  • Lint Roller now gives 12 coins per Rabbit Fluff removed (instead of 10 coins)
  • Mining Pick now gives 10 coins for each Ore and Big Ore destroyed (instead of 5 coins)
  • Ninja and Mouse now gives a 6x coin multiplier (instead of 5x)
  • Quantum Symbol Bomb now gives 9 symbol choices (instead of 5 symbol choices)
  • Red Suits is now Common, is destroyable after 7 spins, and adds Diamonds and Hearts when destroyed (instead of its previous effect)
  • Ricky the Banana now makes Bananas and Banana Peels give 2 coins more (instead of 1 coin more)
  • Ritual Candle now buffs Cultists and Witches (in addition to Hexes)
  • Ritual Candle Essence now checks for and buffs Cultists and Witches (in addition to Hexes)
  • Shedding Season now gives Rabbits a 15% chance to add Rabbit Fluff (instead of a 10% chance)
  • Sunglasses now gives 1 Removal Token if you have 3 or more Removal Tokens (instead of 4 or more)
  • Wanted Poster now makes Thieves give 3.5x more coins (instead of 3x more)
  • Watering Can now makes Seeds give 12 coins more (instead of 10 coins more)
  • Zaroff's Contract now makes Bounty Hunters give 25 coins for each symbol they destroy (instead of 20 coins)


The above balance changes were made for the following reasons:

Card Shark giving 3 coins instead of 2 coins will help create situations where it's a symbol worth taking without synergies, and a great symbol if/when you can get its synergies going, similar to Joker with its base value of 3 coins.

Dog was overlooked in many situations if the player didn't have Quigley the Wolf or a Comedian. This buff will help increase situations where Dog is a viable early-game symbol.

Runs involving General Zaroff and Zaroff's Contract would often fall a bit short on rent payments if the player didn't also have a Shrine or a very large amount of human symbols. Increasing the amount of coins given per human destroyed by 5 will help Zaroff builds cross the finish line.

One could argue Hex of Tedium is actually nerfed by increasing it's "unluckiness." However, the consistency that comes from seeing more Common symbols can make Cultist runs more viable. There are also many symbols that benefit from destroying Common symbols, which might make a Hex of Tedium more worth taking in situations like those.

Mouse was a bit lacking for an early-game symbol unless the player could reliably pull off the Ninja and Mouse item combo. Buffing Mouse and the aforementioned item will either make Mouse truly shine in the dream Ninja and Mouse build, and still be a decent early pick if the player can also find some Cheese.

Ancient Lizard Blade can be buffed by 1 coin without making it overpowered for a Very Rare item. In all honesty though, I've tweaked the item so many times at this point that I thought it would be funny to slightly buff it again (I'm like 90% joking).

Black Cat's "multiple of 13 effect" already triggers pretty rarely. Increasing the amount gained on trigger by 3 coins felt like a safe way to increase players' overall winrate without decreasing fun factor.

The Black Suits and Red Suits reworks were done to increase consistency if a player was going for a Suits run already, and help potentially steer players into experimenting with Suits symbols. The previous effects were really only useful if players already had at least 3 Suits of the corresponding color.

Chili Powder was often a worse Bowling Ball, especially if the player had 2 or less Peppers. Doubling its coins given will make it much more powerful. I'm aware the ceiling is much higher for the item now, but I'm okay with Chili Powder being a good to really good item at its current rarity.

Cyan Pepper and Cyan Pepper Essence were somewhat difficult to trigger at higher floors when the player starts with 3 Duds. Increasing the amount gained on trigger will bring the item in-line with Green Pepper, which is often one of the best Peppers on apartment floors with 3 starting Duds. As a side note, I'm aware of Red Pepper being very underwhelming on floors with 2 or more starting Duds. I'm looking into a solution that doesn't feel as clunky as making it ignore Duds while other symbols don't.

Devil's Deal was decent item before the boss fight was added to the game, but became much worse once skipping the 11th Rent Payment wasn't a guaranteed win anymore. Adding Duds instead of Empties will make a run more likely to be winnable after the Devil's Deal is destroyed. I also didn't like the clunkiness of how the Devil's Deal Empties didn't function how regular Empties did.

Dwarves were slightly lacking if the player didn't have Happy Hour or a Bartender. Making Dwarven Anvil Common instead of Uncommon will increase the amount of times Dwarves pull through for players, sometimes even incidentally from an Item Capsule.

The Fertilizer buff is a very minor one on the surface, but can make the difference if a player needs just a few more coins to keep their run going. Having a Seed grow into a Strawberry a turn before a rent payment is due will cause a loss to become a win a non-zero number of times. Making that situation 25% more likely is definitely worth doing if it doesn't decrease the fun of the game, which I really don't think this buff does.

The Flush and Flush Essence reworks were done to both be an "eject button" for a failed Suits run, and to make Suits have more purpose when appearing in non-Suits runs. The previous effect was only really decent if the player already had a Suits run going, and the coin payoff, while high, wasn't satisfying.

Lint Roller, Watering Can, Mining Pick, Shedding Season, and Wanted Poster having their values increased, while seemingly minor, will increase players' winrate by a non-zero percentage. Always worth doing if the fun isn't decreased, in my opinion.

Quantum Symbol Bomb rarely offered more than one symbol worth taking due to the nature of its effect. Increasing the number of choices by 4 will hopefully increase the number of taken symbols to at least two, but I'm staying open-minded to tweaking Quantum Symbol Bomb further if needed.

Ricky the Banana making Bananas and Banana Peels give 2 additional coins instead of 1 additional coin might seem too powerful on paper. However, given the fact that the effects of Banana and Banana Peel only happen when they're destroyed, increasing their value will only have a large impact if the player has a Comedian build going.

Ritual Candle and Ritual Candle Essence including Cultists and Witches was done to make failed Cultist runs slightly more viable, and to -- as I've said numerous times now -- increase player winrate without decreasing fun. I'll note that adding Cultists and Witches to Holy Water felt too clunky, since I would either need to negate the effects of those symbols if the player had Holy Water, or make the item description much clunkier.

It was very difficult to trigger Sunglasses outside of Endless Mode. Decreasing its Removal Token threshold by 1 will make the item's very powerful effect a bit easier to achieve, especially on apartment floors with less Removal Tokens per e-mail.

Please let me know your thoughts either in the comments or on the official discord!

-Dan

Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a bug where the Title Text was sized incorrectly at some resolutions if the language was set to Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, or Japanese
  • Fixed a bug where the Guillotine Essence icon in the Stats Menu was sized incorrectly at some text sizes
  • Fixed a bug where the HP Sum text didn't have digit separators

The Big Buffs Update - Preview

This preview and other posts are available sooner on The TrampolineTales Newsletter, consider subscribing!

Hey everyone! Today we're gonna be talking about Luck be a Landlord's first major update since it was released: The Big Buffs Update. It's an upcoming Content Patch with about 30 buffs to different symbols and items.

As always, there will be a complete write-up of my reasoning for every balance change in the full v1.1 patch notes. Look forward to that when The Big Buffs Update releases on August 18th!

Why so many buffs?


An unavoidable reality of a game with a lot of randomness, like Luck be a Landlord, is that there will be runs that are unwinnable even while playing perfectly. My main goal with The Big Buffs Update is to reduce the number of games where this is the case, while not making the game any less fun.

Making the game effectively easier while not making it less fun can be a tough thing to do. For example, if the Cherry symbol that you start with gave 20 coins instead of 1 coin, the game would be a lot easier. However, it would be less fun since you wouldn't have any reason to take other symbols. This is an extreme example, but even increasing a symbol's base value by 1 coin can vastly change the game's fun factor in a negative way.

That being said, there are symbols that can have their values increased by just 1 coin without unbalancing the game. Let's take a look at a few of them:

Dog




The Dog symbol is one of the first symbols I added to the game, but it was only ever really worth taking if you already had Quigley the Wolf or a Comedian. It was just too risky otherwise.

By buffing the amount it gives when triggered by 1 coin, Dog will be powerful enough to be worth taking as one of your first symbol choices, and not one that is mostly ignored.

Card Shark




I increased Card Shark's base value by 1 coin for a similar reason. While Card Shark won't appear as early as Dog potentially can, it still feels like a symbol that you only take if you already have a synergy for it.

I've found that the Joker symbol was sometimes worth taking as a 3-coin symbol even if I didn't have any synergies with it. I would sometimes add a Suit or two later on if I already had the Joker.

Buffing Card Shark to give 3 coins instead of 2 coins will help create situations where it's a symbol worth taking without synergies, and a great symbol if/when you can get its synergies going.

Speaking of Card Shark synergies...

Suits




Suits are probably the symbol archetype that could use the most love. You may notice in the above screenshot that I didn't actually change the Suit symbols at all. Instead, I changed many of the items that Suits synergize with.

I did this to effectively increase the number of backup plans a player has when they decide to take their first suit symbol. Here's an example of that:



Previously, the Flush item was only useful if players were already heavily committed to Suits. With its new effect, it can basically be an "eject button" to a failed Suits run. It can also continue to provide value since it effectively turns all Suits into strictly better Wealthy Capsules.

A common request I've gotten from players is to start with a symbol buffing item like Happy Hour or Birdhouse. This would give players a goal if they don't know what kind of symbols to take early.

This has always stuck with me as a good idea, but maybe not the right execution for it. I think starting with, say, Happy Hour, could easily lead a new player into a tunnel-vision state where they only look for Dwarves, Beer, and Wine.

I've tried a bit of a different take on this idea with two more reworked Suit items:





Rather than the previous effect of buffing a build that's probably more-or-less complete by the time you find one of these items, I reworked them into potential build-enablers.

If a player already has a single Diamonds or Hearts and they see the Red Suits item as their 1st or 2nd item choice, they're likely to want to take Red Suits. That being said, there's still a few choices to be made.

Since these items take 7 spins to be destroyable, a player may decide not to destroy one of them if they've ended up with 20+ symbols in their inventory by the time destruction is a possibility. They might not even want to take the item at all if they're already on their 5th or 6th rent payment.

Wrapping Up...


There are many more symbols and items that will become more powerful with The Big Buffs Update, but you'll have to wait until August 18th to see and experience all of them!

Do keep in mind, the biggest goal with this patch is to increase players' overall winrate without reducing the game's fun factor. After extensive testing, I think I've achieved this, and I hope you all enjoy the game as much as I have while testing it.

-Dan

v1.0.44

The game has been patched to get ready for v1.1 (A small Content Patch)

Changes
  • Added a countdown timer for v1.1
  • Fixed a bug where the promo buttons weren't resetting to their default positions after being pressed
  • Fixed a bug where the patch text was offset incorrectly if the language was set to Thai
  • Fixed a typo in the description for Magic Key in Simplified Chinese and Russian

v1.0.43

The game has been patched to fix a few bugs.

Changes
  • Fixed where symbols could have their permanent bonuses and permanent multipliers applied multiple times on reload
  • Fixed where symbols that transform or grow were applying their final texture at the beginning of an animation (such as Coal instantly turning into Diamond when transforming instead of shaking first)
  • Fixed where symbols removed during a spin could visually remain if an effect was applied to them afterwards (such as a Diver removing a Pearl that is then buffed by a Dame)